Lucky Leap
by StaminaRose
Summary: Things around them have gone out of control. All they can hope for is luck and one another. Will it be worth it in the end?  Misao/Tsukasa yuri. Sequel to Three Days, Five Steps.
1. Protect

The Disclaimer: All characters in this fiction belong to their original creators, I make no claim to own anything from this work and certify I am certainly not making any money right now.

A few things to consider before we begin:

**Warning!** A warning in bold no less. This fiction carries directly on from Three Days, Five Steps. Unless you remember perfectly what happened, rereading the last chapter of the fiction would help you a lot.

Second, I would like to dedicate this chapter of my fiction to ArmorBlade - for the creation of the impressive fiction **"Standing Between Luck and Oblivion"** - a crossover with Oblivion though there is little need to have any actual knowledge about the game itself. Its a showcase in what can really be done when you decide to spit on convention and just go ahead and see what you can do with beloved characters if you try. I wish him many happy reviews in the future, and hope that he inspires more people to do some more AU type fictions.

Now, I hope that everyone enjoys my work!

* * *

Deep within the deliciously warm cocoon of blankets she had formed in her futon Konata found herself stirring again. Kagami had already woken her up a few minutes ago when she had gone to the bathroom, but the sleepy girl had quickly found herself snuggling back down into the comfortable haven that was her temporary bed – after discarding the sweaty tank top she had been wearing all night of course. She had only began to wake again when bangs and shouts erupted sporadically from the next room over.

"Heh... is Kagamin starting a fight or something?" She chuckled to herself at the thought. It was just like her Tsundere to get into a scuffle first thing in the morning. "It's gotta be with Misao." She said to herself knowingly, sinking back down into the depths of her blankets to try and recapture the dream she'd been enjoying The one with Mikuru in her bunny girl outfit getting caught in a splash of cold water.

She lay back with a wide contented look on her face, knowing that truly moments like this were what man and womankind alike were supposed to treasure. Warm, soft lie-ins with vaguely arousing dreams going by. Taking a deep calming breath Konata allowed herself to be lulled off to unconsciousness by her tired mind...

...Only to sit up like a shot as a high pitched scream reached her ears. It was muffled going through the walls but still entirely recognizable as Tsukasa – accompanied by unintelligible but undoubtedly aggressive-sounding voices. In seconds Konata was on her feet swinging the door open in her pyjama shorts and nothing else. There were more important things than dignity right now and besides, she always thought she looked pretty dignified even when she was half nude.

She was just in time opening the door to see Kagami with Misao in a headlock – yanking her out into the hallway with all her strength - the most furious expression the blue haired teen had ever seen plastered on her best friend's face.

"What the hell?" Was all Konata could say, staring shocked at the fanged girl being attacked. It was clear even with a glance she had taken a beating – her face was already swelling, one of her eyes was half-closed in obvious pain and blood poured generously from a wide jagged split in her lip. Despite all this however she still wore a wide grin on her face which only intensified when they locked gazes with one another – concern and confusion on one pair, mischief and maliciousness in the other.

"Wow... cold in here isn't it midget? Or are you just excited from flashing for me?" She asked her lecherously, licking her lip clear of blood and giving the best wink she could manage in her current state. "Maybe we need to go have some fun instead?" She laughed, then laughed even harder when Konata looked down at her semi-erect buds and pointedly refused to cover them up.

"Shut up!" Kagami growled and released her, not giving her former friend even a second to react before she shoved her away as forcefully as she could. Unbalanced on her feet, Misao squealed as she stumbled backwards awkwardly. Silence cut through the house like a knife as the fanged girl struck her head on the wall with a far-too-loud bang and went instantly quiet.

She crumpled immediately and slid down to the floor, completely still.

Her enraged former friend stood over her, fists clenched so tightly they were shaking.

Konata simply stood in the middle of the hall, the scene in front of her so completely incomprehensible she was having trouble coming up with a response. Slowly she felt the instinctive prickling along her neck and back that told her someone else was watching.

She span around.

Tsukasa stood in the doorway to her room. She looked almost like she had been dressed for a date, wearing a cream skirt, a cute matching shirt, and even what looked like the tiniest bit of make-up. She should have been beautiful. Instead Konata had never seen her looking worse.

Her other friend was literally as white as a sheet, trembling from head to toe. In her eyes tears had already begun to fall and her breathing was ragged – unsteady and as shaky as her stance. Worst of all though was that look of absolute fear directed towards the two other girls. Konata couldn't tell which one it was towards, but she could take a guess.

"Tsukasa? What's happened? Are you alright?" The young geek tried to get an answer using the calmest quietest voice she could, but the tiniest Hiiragi was completely unresponsive and seemingly divorced from reality. Her eyes didn't even move to look at her.

Konata quickly gave up, Tsukasa was completely unresponsive to her. Instead something that had been bothering the petite girl for the entirety of this bizarre experience suddenly decided to assert its dominance in her mind. A single overwhelming question in her thoughts.

_'How the hell did Kagamin win this fight?'_ It came even before she was questioning what the fight could even be about. Had Kagami even thought of this yet? She doubted it. Nevertheless her favourite Tsundere was definitely the victor, if Misao was even conscious right now she still wasn't getting up soon too soon. But that was the problem – in that it made absolutely no sense. Misao was in a dozen clubs at school and Konata was sure at least one of those did some kind of martial art. Judo or something. Plus, from all accounts even before that had been an enthusiastic scrapper. In addition she was one of the more athletic girls Konata knew, running faster than even her and Minami in races and generally being the queen of any sports club she had time for.

Kagami was scrawny in comparison. The only real exercise she did was working at the shrine and cleaning floors didn't build much muscle - what's more Konata was pretty sure she'd never been in a serious fight in her entire life.

In the face of this one thing stood out even more than the rest. Alright, so maybe she could accept that someone fuelled by anger could defeat a trained fighter if they had a lot of luck on their side. But in Konata's opinion, there was no way they could do it over an extended fight whilst seemingly receiving absolutely no hits of their own. Kagami didn't have a scratch on her.

Every inch of logic in her head told the small girl that Misao wasnt supposed to be beaten black and blue like that.

Just as importantly, why was the one Tsukasa looking at in fear exclusively her own sister? She was almost sure now, after all it wasn't like anyone could be afraid of Misao in _this_ condition.

"K-Kagamin?" She could hardly believe that under-confident stutter was really her own voice. She tried again. "What are you doing?" She tried to keep her tone level and calm, like how she imagined a lion tamer might when trying not to be consumed. Instead it came out shaky and the sentence just sounded bizarre. So completely unsuited for something this serious.

Her best friend turned to her with a look as if to say she could easily be next. "Wait in my room, I'm dealing with this." Every syllable was a growl, and the blue haired geek reminded herself that while she was athletic she too had no experience in fighting - and that Kagami was much bigger than her. She didn't expect her best friend to attack her of course... but it was still just something to think about.

"Kagamin... whatever she did you've probably given her a concussion. A doctor would be a really good idea." Konata couldn't help but suggest it. Alright so there wasn't any blood, but even she knew you had to be careful with bangs to the head. Misao could be staying silent so as not to provoke more pain, or she could be truly unable to speak – struck unconscious by the impact.

"I'm dealing with this!" Kagami almost screamed the sentence, and for the first time her short friend noticed pinprick tears in the corners of those beautiful blue eyes. "Go away!" The very act of being shouted at like that from her best friend made Konata take a step backwards with wide eyes. She had angered Kagami hundreds of times, but that voice had never been used and she'd never felt such ambient fear. The pigtailed girl pointed meaningfully to her bedroom door and gave her a look, one that said that arguing would be the worst idea in the entire world.

Konata almost wet herself just seeing it.

Without another word to her best friend Kagami grabbed a fistful of Misao's hair between her fingers, trying to pull her up to her feet with little success but much gusto – pulling so hard the girls entire body jolted. From the complete lack of pained screams it suddenly became terrifyingly clear to Konata that Misao's silence was genuine.

Just seeing that was the last straw.

Against her better judgement and every logical thought she could get together the otaku girl retreated back into the room she had come from, sparing one sympathetic glance for the youngest sister of the Hiiragi who didn't return it. She closed the door softly and leaned against it, her legs knocking together and her heart heavy with guilt. Guilt that she had abandoned Tsukasa to watch what she couldn't bare to. For though her thoughts told her to stay, her very instinct had wanted nothing more than to get out of view of that scene and keep it away.

There were more shouts from the other side of the door, and the occasional soft but urgent sounding voice that she guessed was Tsukasa, but Konata couldn't bare to try and figure out the words. She was freaked out by this entire thing. What had caused her Kagamin to go so over the top in hurting her friend? One that she had known for double the amount of time they had been talking with one another. When all was said and done, Kagami wasn't actually a violent person. Sure, she would give a light smack from time to time but that was just stuff between friends and it never really hurt. Certainly she hadn't started this fight - the idea was just impossible.

So what had been done to provoke her? What could be that terrible? Misao could be blunt and dense in her actions, she could even be overly-jealous and massively petty true enough. Even Ayano would admit that with a little pushing. But she wasn't known for over-the-top maliciousness, and that had been all Konata had felt in the little that had been said to her before the fanged girl was knocked out.

"Maybe I should call an ambulance..." She said to herself aloud, before recalling there wasn't a phone in this room.

For a few seconds Konata managed to get her mind off the trauma by dressing, getting out a simple pair of short pants and her favourite panda T-shirt from her bag, but it soon collapsed and sent her back to reality. The door had taken on a forbidding aura for her and for the first time she thought she knew what it was like to be grounded - an experience her doting father had never given his relatively well behaved daughter.

Sitting down on the bed she tried to keep her mind off of things for as long as possible, even thumbing through some of her friend's light novels out of a desire to think of something else. After twenty minutes of sighs and skim-reading however she began to consider anything had to be better than this.

Looking for something else to do she found herself peeping through the curtains out of the window, seeing the car was gone and wondering if any of the other people in the Hiiragi family were still in the house – hoping they were still in the house in fact. Of course, she had no idea what Misao had done exactly. Maybe if it had been enough to get Kagami so infuriated it would do the same to her? It had something to do with Tsukasa, that much was evident. But as for what she had no idea.

Her questions on Misao's fate were answered at least as she moved closer to the glass and her eyes widened. On the path leading up to the door there was a figure lying partly on the grass, only visible because she was so close. It was quite obviously Misao, along with her bags that had apparently been thrown on top of her.

_'I wonder if Kagamin threw her out there or if she just crawled out and collapsed...' _She thought._ 'Actually which of those would even be better? Its either being unconscious so long that she's still out of it or that she collapsed again after waking up?'_

Before she could try to see the extent to which she was harmed Konata hear a sound that made every muscle in her body tense in shock. It was the door handle being pressed.

By the time the door had even begun to open the curtains were closed again and the tiny high school girl was sitting on Kagami's bed looking as innocent as possible.

"Kagamin?" Her voice was just as timid as she felt.

"Hey..." Awkwardly, the pigtailed girl stood in her own doorway before closing the entrance behind her and sitting beside her friend on the bed. Immediately Konata's fear of her friend died. It was clear that she had calmed down a lot, well enough to not be dangerous anymore. "I threw Kusakabe outside."

"I saw her." Her friend answered. "What happened?"

"She... She did something."

"I guessed that." Konata replied blankly. "Was it to Tsukasa?"

"Yeah..."

"Do you want to tell me?"

"..."

"It's alright if you don't you know..."

"I have to... but... you have to promise not to tell anyone else. Not without Tsukasa giving you permission."

"I promise." She said truthfully. "What happened?" Konata stared at her friend intently before putting a hand around her shoulder with a friendly, though somewhat strained, smile. Usually it would have been thrown off immediately. In fact that was what Konata had been expecting, instead it was accepted and - some instinct in the smaller girl's mind told her - maybe even appreciated.

There was the awkward pause to end all awkward pauses. Kagami couldn't bring herself to say anything, Konata couldn't think of how to coax anything else out of her. They just sat together.

Eventually however the taller girl did speak, with a confused sound to her voice.

"Did you know Kusakabe was..." She paused again, taking a breath and repeating herself. "Did you know Kusakabe was gay?"

"No, I didn't." Rapidly pieces were coming together in Konata's mind. Suddenly the crime was being narrowed down and she felt herself filled up with dread. Not to mention guilt at the fact she wasn't just worried for Tsukasa now, she was worried at what this could mean for herself.

"When I walked into Tsukasa's room Kusakabe was on top of her. Holding her down." Kagami's tone was artificially calm. Konata had to wonder how hard her best friend was working to keep from breaking down.

"I don't really know what to say..." Konata said truthfully. "H-How far..." She didnt want to finish, but it seemed like her best friend had understood.

"I think i got there before anything too bad could happen..." She said, and joy flooded into Konata's heart to hear some positive emotion injected into her friend's voice if only for a brief moment."But if I'd have been just five minutes later then..." She trailed off, gritting her teeth.

Konata watched as Kagami's hands clenched into fists. She was beginning to understand the violent reaction, and wonder how she might have reacted given the same situation.

"Is Tsukasa okay?" It was hard to hide the worry in her voice, though she tried. Maybe she didn't have the sisterly bond going, but she loved all her friends and even she felt protectiveness when it came to the youngest in their group. _'_

"I-I think so..." The purple haired girl sighed. "I don't think she fully understood what Misao was going to do. So that's probably good at least."

"How do you know she wanted to go so far?"

"She... she said something to me. Something I don't think Tsukasa would have understood."

Konata didn't ask what that something was. The simplicity of that sentence was enough to tell her there was no way Kagami was repeating it. Neither did she point out that Tsukasa knew a lot more about mature things than anyone would expect – because there was no way in hell she was prepared to take the one piece of comfort Kagami had away. Or admit to her that she had been privately educating her sister in naughty lingo. '_I'll have to talk to Tsukasa-chan when I can though. This is important."_

"So what happens now?" Konata asked.

The taller girl shrugged.

"I don't know really. Tsukasa made it clear she didn't want me calling the police, but I can't just forget about it." Kagami punched her bed apparently on reflex, growling under her breath. "It just doesn't make any sense. I've known Kusakabe for years! She's never shown any signs of being like this!"

"Like what? A rapist or a lesbian?" Konata questioned.

"Both!" Her friend shouted back, feeling her grip on her emotions slip. "I've never even seen her _look_ at another girl before!"

"Well have you ever seen her look at a guy?"

"No..." Kagami seemed to trail off, but in truth she was running through her memories of her friend. "I... I don't really know her that well if I'm honest... I don't even know if she's ever dated anyone." Her voice was pathetic, it just made Konata want to hug her. In other times she would have made a comment about Kagami acting like a Tsundere, switching from angry to sweet so quickly. She sensed now was no the time however.

"I thought you've known her for years though." The otaku asked, frowning a little with confusion.

"I have."

The awkward silence that followed was Konata figuring out that the years had probably been Kagami ignoring the fanged girl as best she could. _'No wonder she missed something this big. Hell, for all I know this might have been what Misao sees as revenge.' _

"Do... Do you even like her?" Konata asked incredulously.

The awkward silence came back. Konata still wasn't sure what the answer was, somehow she didn't even think Kagami was.

"Maybe we should talk to someone who does know her then?" The smaller girl offered.

"You mean Minegishi?"

"Why not?"

"I don't think she'd even believe me." Kagami told her, putting one hand on her now beginning to ache head. "The two of them have been best friends since they could speak. How do you tell someone their best friend is capable of something like that?"

"It depends on if they already know or not."

Konata watched as realisation dawned on Kagami's face and the Tsundere turned to look at her.

"You don't think Minegishi knows she can do this? Do you?"

"I don't have a clue, but its always possible." Konata shrugged, leaning back on the bed to think. "Knowing someone for that long you've gotta get a good enough idea of what they're prepared to do."

"I'm... I'm going to call her..." The schoolgirl reached to her drawer and looked through it before pulling out her mobile phone.

"You might want to start with the lesbianism. That's the less shocking of the two at least."

"It is?"

"Well, she did say 'who needs boys' last night. That's kind of an indicator that someone isn't into penis." Konata laughed aloud as her friend turned strawberry red in front of her at the crude language, then dodged at the fist aimed at smacking her head. "Ooh. Still in the violent mood eh Kagamin?" Konata was glad though. That reaction was a sign they were returning to the normality she craved – and back to the Kagamin that she loved to tease.

"This isn't the time to joke." She growled, advancing on the small girl as she play-cowered.

"Look, you need to calm down." Konata advised from her foetal position. "You protected Tsukasa, and from what you've told me she's fine. You need to stop worrying about what could have happened and start just making sure it wont happen again." A blue-haired heard popped up with a gentle smile for her. "You've been a good sister today. A little over the top, but good. You don't need to be this stressed out."

"You really don't think it's that bad?"

"Of course not! Tsukasa will be over this in a few days, promise." Konata said confidently, hoping she was right.

Kagami's angry expression fought to remain, but eventually it lost. Instead being replaced with a grudging smile back at her.

"Thanks... I guess you are right. No permanent damage was done..."

"Well, except to Misao herself. Remind me never to get on your bad side." It wasn't a very good joke, and in reality Konata was hoping the fanged girl wasn't too badly injured even if she did attack Tsukasa. But maybe it would be a good lesson for her too.

"You're lucky I like you, or I'd be hitting you instead." The pigtailed girl told her. "And I'm calling Minegishi before you try to turn that into an innuendo."

Kagami pressed the quick dial and lifted the mobile to her ear, standing against the wall as it rang.

Konata got up as well, seeming to wander aimlessly round the room but in reality slowly approaching the window, opening the curtain to glance through whilst Kagami was looking the other way and preoccupied.

Relief flooded into her when she saw that Misao was no longer on the lawn. Wherever she was presumably she still had the brains left in her head to walk.

She moved away before her best friend saw what she was doing.

"Hello? Minegishi?" She asked, her voice obviously nervous. "Sorry to bother you, but Konata and I... well we've found something out about Kusakabe." Pause. "Yeah, you probably wont believe us but... it's definitely true." Another pause. "No, she didn't mention you. Should she have? Are you involved?" This pause was much shorter than the others had been. "Minegishi?"

"She hung up?" Konata guessed from the look of utter surprise on her friends face.

"Yeah." Kagami replied, confused. "I'm redialling." She pressed the button, and waited for a result. "It says she cant be reached."

"Then she panicked and turned her phone off." The shorter girl deduced. Not very smart really, since it would only make her look more suspicious.

"She must have." Kagami agreed, though hardly believing it herself. "This is getting really strange."

"It all points to one conclusion though."

"What's that?"

"Ayano knows something. I'm going to guess its either about Misao liking girls or her having an evil side. We just don't know which one."

"I really can't imagine Minegishi would be such a good friend with her if she knew Kusakabe could do this sort of thing."

"Yeah, you're probably right. So that means she knows she's a lesbian." Konata concluded – looking intensely pleased with herself. It looked like playing detective visual novels was paying off. And if they were erotic detective visual novels, then that was fine too. "Not that surprising. I think a person should be able to tell when their best friend likes girls."

"I can't believe they both hid that from me..." Alright, it was understandable if Misao was going to keep it from her, but to tell one friend and not tell the other? That was just hurtful. Okay, so it was Ayano, so the two had been best friends since their first day of school, and she was the first to admit that perhaps she wasn't the best friend she could be to Misao, but still…

"You um... you did hear me right?"

And how had Ayano kept this from her? Ayano was a terrible liar. Beyond terrible in fact. It wasn't that she couldn't make them up, it was that she couldn't maintain them. Even with the smallest lies, after a day she would be fidgeting so much that it was obvious she was hiding something, and just talking to her was enough to make her jump. Just like Tsukasa. Kagami could read either of them like a book, or so she had thought.

Konata sighed. "No? Alright then." No use, she was too deep in thought to pay anything but fleeting attention to her.

"Sorry, did you say something?"

"Forget it, it doesn't matter."

"Alright then..." Kagami frowned, absolutely sure she had heard something. In the end she dismissed it however, there were more important things than another one of her best friend's stupid background comments. "So what do I do now?"

Konata looked at her and shrugged meaningfully.

"Do what you always do."

"What do you mean?" Kagami asked.

Konata smiled at her warmly. "Just be a good sister."

* * *

Now, I hope that get's you interested for more. Don't worry everyone, this fiction is not going to be all dark drama. Im hoping for some interesting constrasts between fluffy-wuffy-ness and dramatic friendship and relationship tension.

And of course, we'll get to see how Misao's short term plan begins to spiral beyond her own control. All this and more, in the next episode of this thing!


	2. School

I think I have to say thank you to everyone who gave me such a great response to the first chapter. I got loads of people who seemed glad to have me back, loads of people guessing at Misao's actions, a possible suicide threat and someone who never wants to read my stuff again because they upset him too much XD evidently that last one is from someone not exactly used to relationships. I mean, Its not like I have a super strong stomach. At time of writing I'm on the first chapter of the Lucky Star Fallout crossover and too afraid to continue because I've heard bad things happen to Tsukasa. I once had insomnia for a week because I watched Aliens Vs Predator 2 (most was fine, but one scene of pseudo-rape on a pregnant woman made me hysterical with terror), and Watchmen made me cry because a lesbian couple gets knifed to pieces in their beds and everyone acts like it was as bound to happen as the sun coming up in the morning.

So yeah. Not exactly an emotional tank over here. Kind of the opposite.

Um... Lets go!

* * *

_'Misa-chan...' _

For probably the first time in her life Tsukasa had woken up before her alarm had gone off, a full hour in fact. But she didn't try to get back to sleep, she wasn't tired anyway. Instead, the youngest girl in her house lay in her bed and tried to organise her swirling and conflicting emotions.

The most prominent one was guilt.

Tsukasa knew that there was no way she could have known Misao would choose to do what she did. But she also knew that her cowardice was the only reason Misao had gotten so hurt in the first place. She knew that all it would have taken was for her to stand up and explain what was really going on to her sister, and everything could have ended before it even began. But she hadn't. Instead, because of her Kagami had lost a friendship years old, and her girlfriend had been beaten up to the point of unconsciousness.

That had been days ago, and yet every single time Tsukasa looked at her older twin she felt another stab of guilt – for different reasons. Put simply, Tsukasa felt bad about lying to her sister in any situation and this was easily the worst. Kagami had been there for her literally from birth, there had never been one time Tsukasa knew of where her twin had been anything but loving towards her – even at times where Tsukasa knew she had been annoying or needy. She tried to give back the best she could, but the fact was all she was really good at was housework and cooking – and that didn't really seem enough. So to lie to her sister on a daily basis when the lie was obviously hurting her... it was hard. Sometimes she felt like the pressure was just building up, that any second she might just explode and confess to her what had really happened.

When that happened she would go to her twin with the full intention of telling her everything, and to ask If she could forgive her for lying. She had done it four or five times now, but every single time she just backed out at the last moment, changed the subject to something else. Because she was also afraid.

That was another emotion, fear.

Fear of what Kagami would think of her if the truth was ever discovered. Tsukasa didn't know what her sister's attitudes to people like her were. Before this had happened she had never had any reason to ask, and now that it had she was frankly just too terrified to dare. Misao's act couldn't possibly have helped her opinion after all.

Then there was the fear of what the rest of her family would think, especially when practically all of them worked in the temple at least part-time. As for her friends at school, it was difficult for her to imagine Konata being opposed to anything really, but there would definitely be embarrassing jokes and teasing at the very least. As for Miyuki, Tsukasa honestly couldn't guess what her reaction would be – the taller girl truly didn't have a mean bone in her body, so she doubted it could be anything too bad, but who could tell? Then there was the rest of the school – the idea of walking through the halls as people pointed at her and whispered...

But even if Kagami didn't mind at all, if her friends were supportive and her school didn't even really care, that wasn't nearly the end of it. The fact of the matter was, exposing the lie itself was now truly frightening to her. She didn't want her sister to know that she had betrayed her like that. She didn't want to have to confess her lies to a person who had probably been the single most important person in her entire life – to some extent even above her own mother.

And then, shining through all the negative emotions there were the others. The excitement, and the warm feelings that came up when she pictured that special person's smiling face. She hadn't seen nor heard a word from her since that day, she had barely been let out of her sister's sight and she had no idea of Misao's phone number or email address. Sometimes the only thing that had convinced her it wasn't a bizarre dream or a fantasy had been the fading love-bite that had blossomed in the crook of her neck. The knowledge that today was the day they could meet again made her cheeks blush and her heart beat fast.

_'I really must love Misa-chan to feel like this.' _She thought. _'I just wish I didn't have to hurt Oneechan to do it...'_

It was still early in the morning, but Tsukasa decided to get up anyway. She wasn't good at a lot of things, but she was probably the best cook in the house and today she was going to make sure her sister got a great breakfast and a great lunch to take too.

* * *

"Oh, good morning Hiiragi-chan!" The moment she saw her friend come in Ayano stood from her desk to greet her, giving her a smile and a small wave and looking the very picture of a morning person. As Kagami approached however she simply gave a grunt in response and walked past her, looking around the room before growling to herself.

"Hiiragi-chan?"Ayano asked nervously.

"Where's Kusakabe?" She asked sharply.

"M-Most of the school clubs are meeting up again today," The gentle girl told her, understandably timid in the face of her friend's obvious irritation. "Misa-chan is in a few of the sports ones so she probably won't be here for a while..."

"Dammit." Kagami sat down at her desk heavily, dropping her school bag at the side of the chair. She glanced up at her friend beside her. Ayano was fidgeting with her hands, a worried expression on her face. Kagami sighed. "Sorry for being rude Minegishi. Good morning to you too, it's good to see you again."

"Thank you Hiiragi-chan. Its nice to see you again too." The other girl smiled warmly, but Kagami noticed she didn't ask why she wanted Misao so badly. She doubted her friend really had any idea of what had happened, but she had to know something bad had. It had been days since the incident, and Misao and Ayano were around each other pretty much 24/7. She had to at least have seen Misao's bruises and asked right?

Growling under her breath Kagami opened her desk and unceremoniously slammed her books into it, scattering papers and school supplies around.

"Careful Hiiragi-chan!" Ayano leapt forwards and plucked something from mid-air before it touched the dirty floor. "You'll damage it..."

"Damage what?" She asked as her friend showed the item to her, holding it carefully in her hands as if it were an injured bird or something. "Oh... another one."

"Oh look at it! You squashed the flower." Ayano reprimanded her. "You should be more careful."

"I don't need to be careful. I don't care." Kagami answered sharply, a blush over her face saying otherwise as she took it from Ayano and dropped it on her desk for examination.

It was an envelope, tiny and pink with a floral pattern on it. Attached was a small pink flower – very pretty even though it wasn't one of the well known ones and had probably just been picked whilst the person was walking around. Her abuse showed however – the envelope paper was crumpled and the flower had been squashed flat.

Honestly, she did feel guilty. Someone had put a lot of effort into this and she'd almost missed it entirely.

With a sigh Kagami opened it and unfolded the letter. She could say this for the sender, their handwriting was beautiful. It was among the best she had ever seen, the only people she knew with especially good writing were Miyuki and Ayano. But she'd never seen them put this much effort into something, she'd only seen their everyday school work. And as if the writing wasn't enough there was even flower petals inside the letter itself to give it a pleasant scent.

As for the contents, they were only briefly scanned over. She'd read the full thing tonight at home, when she was sure no one was around to see her.

Almost as if daring her friend to comment Kagami carefully slid the letter back into its envelope and placed it into her bag. It would go in her drawer at home along with the other dozen or so she had been getting for a month or so now since before the school break.

Ayano smiled to herself but made sure to cover it up. Her friend always pretended to be angry or annoyed at getting the love letters yet the gentle girl knew that in reality Kagami hung on every single word.

_'If only she knew who was giving them...' _She giggled to herself. That would really surprise her.

"Minegishi? Are any teachers out of school today?" It was an usual question, but they were both well aware it was just being asked to draw attention away from the letter. Nevertheless, Ayano answered.

"I think Kuroi-sensei is off sick again so that means we'll probably not be doing any work for her lesson."

"Sick again? Do you think the principal hasn't noticed she's hardly ever in on Mondays? "

"I hope not. I like Kuroi-sensei even if she does stay off school for hangovers."

"Its a shame we don't get her for more subjects. We don't have World History much."

"Well... she sometimes volunteers for the extra classes, and she's helped out in Home Ec." Ayano recalled. "And didn't she give help the school nurse give the Sex Ed. Classes?"

"Oh yeah... don't remind me." Kagami shuddered. They had taught the classes together – so obviously Konata had gravitated towards her and Kuroi had come to sit near her favourite student when the videos had started. The results were a load of laughs and some blush-worthy whispered jokes that she wished she hadn't heard. The two of them were just awful together. It reminded her of Konata and Misao – and there she felt her anger bubble as the name passed through her thoughts – two similar people that were hard as hell to handle by themselves, let alone together. But unlike that example they actually liked one another and that made it worse. Plus Kagami always felt so childish and immature when they started talking about adult things in front of her that she barely understood – for it seemed Kuroi had no qualms about speaking to her far younger friend about pretty much anything. Hell, to an outside listener they probably could have been mistaken for the same age – at least if Konata's sing-song voice didn't sound as immature as it did.

Eventually their conversation became more natural and less awkward, and Kagami enjoyed it. She didn't often get to speak to Ayano and she enjoyed hearing about all the things the girl had done since they'd last seen one another. And though she frowned every time the activities involved Misao, she chose not to say anything yet. She needed to find time later on to tell Ayano, doing it in the classroom with so many people about wasn't an option. Tsukasa had made it clear she wanted as few people to know as possible, and Kagami understood that. If she had been... attacked like that she wouldn't exactly want it to be public knowledge. But Ayano would have to be warned even if it did make Tsukasa a little uncomfortable.

That was, if she could even do it. Telling her would be difficult – beyond difficult in fact. Just explaining it would be hard enough, but the real problem would be getting Ayano to even believe her. The other girl had known Misao probably her entire life, certainly her entire school life and that included kindergarten too. There were parents and children who weren't as close as the two friends. How could she even begin to convince Ayano of something so horrible?

It was actually getting difficult for her even to believe it herself, now that the burning rage of that day had degraded into a lower-level sort of anger. Especially listening to Ayano talk about what she and her best friend had been doing over the break. After all, its hard to believe someone is truly evil when you're hearing stories about them making cupcakes with their best friend. Hell, it was almost as if they were just two completely separate people. One of them was the devoted, sometimes smothering (at least it seemed so to Kagami) childhood friend of Minegishi. Playful, fun (in an annoying sort of way), selectively hard-working, dense as lead and generally pretty harmless. The other the one she had seen attack her sister, some sort of malevolent sexual-predator that had just suddenly popped up from beneath the incoherent depths of Misao's psyche. Who was apparently gay, just to be as weird as possible.

Which didn't make any sense to her, because people are themselves. They don't just suddenly change into someone else. So had Misao always been like this? Always hiding this other part of of herself? The part that had wanted to... do things with her sister?

Which, when she thought, was odd in itself. Why had she gone for Tsukasa, someone she barely knew. Why not the person she was obsessed with, why not Ayano?

The next thought was an unsettling spark of horror that started in her brain and quickly raced down her spine to spread through her body. The thought was that perhaps she had, and maybe no one knew about it. Ayano didn't have an elder sister to barge in at the right time, and Misao had seemed a little confident in what she been doing for it to have been a one time thing.

Ayano would have seen those bruises Misao had gotten – it had barely been a week and they spent most of their time together. If Misao didn't tell her the truth Kagami knew Ayano probably would have called her instead to ask if she knew what had happened. If Misao had told a lie then Kagami knew Ayano would have called anyway to speak about it – at least mentioned it in an email. But Ayano hadn't said even one word about it, so maybe she'd been told the truth instead.

Maybe she knew exactly what Misao had done that day, because the fanged girl had no need to lie to someone who had also been on the receiving end of her hidden side. It was definitely an explanation, and really the only one she could really think of right now. It actually fit.

The pigtailed girl shuddered and tried to dismiss the dark thoughts. It couldn't possibly be like that. Their friendship was genuine, Kagami was certain. And who could continue a friendly relationship with someone who had done things like that?

Yes, she was just being paranoid. For now she would just have to deal with the more immediate problems, like finding a private time to explain to Ayano that her closest, oldest friend was a malevolent sociopath.

Kagami sighed and began wondering how she would react if someone suddenly told her Tsukasa was secretly evil.

* * *

"H-Hello Kona-chan..." The voice was so quiet Konata would have had trouble figuring out who it was if not for the fact only one person actually called her that. Attempts at getting Kagami to do it had ended in failure and bruised body parts, Miyuki was far too polite, Patty too mature to do it unless she was trying to be cute (and therefore up to something) and it made Hiyori blush. Tsukasa was the only person it really could be, and so the shorter girl span around with a wide smile and went directly into what she liked to call Glomp-Mode, only toning it down into a slightly-aggressive hug when she remembered her friend might be feeling sensitive.

"Tsukasa! Long time no see, eh?" The otaku girl said cheerfully as she looked up at the (marginally) taller girl, her hands already looped around her friend and pulling her close.

"It's good to see you again Kona-chan." Tsukasa wasn't really used to receiving her friend's hugs - that was usually her sister's department – but she didn't mind all the same and gave her a brief (slightly embarrassed) squeeze back.

"Did that get rid of the awkwardness like I thought it would?" Konata asked once she had pulled away. Tsukasa nodded with a little smile on her face. "Good, um... I know you probably don't really want to talk about it... but you are okay right? I didn't really wanna ask you over email..."

"I'm fine Kona-chan." She reassured her friend. "Oneechan took care of everything but I don't really want to talk about it much..."

"Alright, if you're sure then I guess that's good enough for me." The otaku answered truthfully. For a second the terrifying empty look she had seen just a few days ago on Tsukasa's face resurfaced in her mind – but she dismissed it. If her second favourite Hiiragi just wanted to carry on as normal then there wouldn't be any arguments from her. At least not here in public. Maybe when they were next alone she could carefully ask more.

"Um... where is Kuroi-sensei?"

"Oh, Nanako-chan got drunk last night again." Konata explained with a wide grin.

"Another absence? Kuroi-sensei is going to get in trouble..." Tsukasa began to smile too as they spoke, so relieved that Konata was allowing her to have normality instead of trying to question her.

"Yeah, and she complains I have a bad attendance record."

"But you and Kuroi-sensei are good friends anyway," _'You're calling her Nanako-chan after-all...'_ "So she never seems to really be telling you off."

"That's because she knows if she did I just need to print out our chat logs and bring them to school. Nanako-chan gets pretty dirty on the web once she's got a few drinks in her..." Konata chuckled to herself darkly.

"Um... what?" Her innocent friend asked, not sure she heard correctly.

"Nothing~" Konata crooned. "It's just that I know pretty much every embarrassing relationship she's had for the past decade. Including all the really short one-night ones. There's a lot of stuff there."

It took a while, but Tsukasa's mind eventually processed what her friend meant. She blushed. "Y-You mean... she tells you all about um... what she does with um..." The poor girl stuttered and mumbled, not sure what words to use without sounding obscene.

"With guys she meets in bars and takes home for a night?" Konata offered, smirking. "Yeah, she does. _Everything_."

Had anyone tried, it probably would have been possible to fry an egg on the taller girl's cheeks.

"You probably shouldn't repeat that stuff Kona-chan..."

"It's alright. If I told people stuff then she has some dirt on me she would use. So we have an agreement that we keep stuff between us."

"Um... alright then." It was all she could say really. In the privacy of her own mind Tsukasa had to wonder just what the heck else her teacher and her friend talked about late at night when they were playing their games together. Plus, she couldn't imagine what dirty secrets Konata could possibly possess at her age, when Tsukasa knew she had never had a boyfriend in real life.

Somehow she got the disturbing idea whatever those secret were they probably had something to do with Konata's dad.

Still, she liked the fact that the two seemed to be such good friends when they weren't causing trouble for one another, even if it did seem a little strange that a teacher in her mid-twenties got on so well with a teenager. In the end though it almost made sense. Kuroi seemed like the kind of person who listened to their inner child. Konata on the other hand wore her inner child on the outside and seemed to instead have an inner pervy old man influencing her thoughts. When all was said and done it probably all just balanced out.

"Why don't we go see what Miyuki-san is doing?" Konata suggested, having already picked out their other friend from the rest of the students – the unknowing victim just sorting through her books for the day at her desk.

Tsukasa just hung back and watched with a slightly embarrassed smile as Konata went to the edge of the classroom and slowly began moving around to the back of the room – fully aware of what was going to happen already. Konata had been getting into the habit recently of sneaking up on the well-endowed girl from behind so she could jump on her. Mostly to surprise her with a hug, something that would invariably cause her to make all sorts of noises that the otaku girl adored. Mostly different kinds of squeals.

"EEP!"

True to her predictions that was exactly what had happened – though Tsukasa's curiosity prevented her from taking her eyes off of the sight. Miyuki was currently bright red as most of the class was now staring at her after the sound she had made – which would have been bad enough by itself. Unfortunately they could also see what Konata was doing.

In fairness to her none of those wandering hands were actually wandering over anything off-limits. But they were still going very close.

"Morning Miyuki-san!" The blue-haired head nuzzled into the crook between her friends shoulders affectionately – showing no sign of being ashamed for her actions in front of the class.

"Good morning Yuki-chan." Tsukasa approached and greeted the flushed girl a little more normally, giving her a reassuring smile.

"G-Good morning Izumi-san, Tsukasa-san." To give credit where it was due, her voice only wavered a little bit and she went a few full seconds before politely but firmly removing the hands that seemed to be bumping 'accidentally' against her impressive chest a little more now that class interest had subsided.

Habit compelled them both to ignore their friend's behaviour like they always had. Konata was just like this. Telling her off for it now was something only Kagami ever bothered to do. Besides, at this point it seemed like telling a dog off for chasing its tail - although admittedly it was a little more like a dog chasing someone else's. It was just what she did. Kagami was teased mercilessly about her non-existent love life and her weight worries. Miyuki was embarrassed in front of the class and frankly by comparison Tsukasa had gotten off relatively easily. The worst Konata ever did to her was send her embarrassing love advice and adult jokes over email – much of it ripped from web articles about how to please the boyfriend she didn't in fact have. Mostly because anything over the top would have been immediately stopped by her sister, and because in some ways Tsukasa enjoyed reading things which were a little bit risque.

But despite all of that, none of them resented her for a moment. After all, her actions were never malicious and the last thought on Konata's mind was making someone unhappy. Quite the contrary, she brightened their days. Because despite her flaws, she held their group together. She was fun to be around, knew hundreds of good jokes and had a bouncy energetic optimistic attitude to practically any situation. What would happen without Konata to inject the day with humour?

The girl in question finally gave up her battle to remain on Miyuki's back, moving off of her like nothing had happened and instead asking how she had enjoyed visiting her family over Golden Week.

It seemed like that was pretty much that for her return to school. As she listened to Miyuki talking she reflected that waiting had been by far the worse part.

* * *

Ayano had just gone back to their homeroom when the bell for lunch had rung, to sit down at her desk and wait for whatever was going to happen. The sports clubs were all supposed to have finished by now. So either Misao would stay out of the way for the rest of the day or there would be a confrontation. All she had to do was wait to see which of her close friends got here first. In the meantime there was nothing else to do but contemplate the situation she was now in.

When Misao had wandered onto her doorstep almost a week ago with such awful injuries - from Kagami of all people - Ayano had fully expected the worst when they got back to school. But somehow in the intervening days everything had gotten back to normal just too fast. They had just carried on doing what they usually did, they had hung out and watched television and cooked and gone out and everything else they enjoyed. In the meantime Misao's bruises and bumps had faded away and Ayano had more or less edited the unpleasantness out of her head.

Now she was back in school she could no longer do that, because it was immediately apparent that Kagami was still monumentally angry at her best friend. It wasn't hard to pick up on. Even without the bad mood that morning, it was child's play for the quiet observant girl to note how Kagami tensed up every single time someone mentioned Misao's name.

But that wasn't what worried her. Kagami was often short-fused and irritable, and Misao was often clumsy and insensitive. Kagami being angry at her was a fairly common occurrence. What worried her were two things. First of all, whatever Misao had done had been bad enough to prompt not only a grudge from their pigtailed friend but also some serious violence – when neither were things Kagami was known for. Secondly, and far more worryingly, Misao had flat out refused to tell her what was had gone on between them.

Well... actually, that wasn't totally true. If she asked her best friend to tell her, Ayano knew she would get an answer. Or rather, if she _told_ her to.

Ayano wasn't a fool, she knew full well the power she held over her childhood friend. She knew – with the certainty of someone who knew their best friend a little too well - that she was the most important person in the world to her, in every way imaginable. Misao had told her as such before and repeated it like a mantra. If Ayano truly wanted to know what had happened then she only needed to apply the right pressure and any deception from her fanged friend would fold in seconds. She would probably smile when she telling her everything too, that was just how she was.

The same could be said about pretty much anything honestly. It was a telling mark of their relationship that she had once had a truly horrible nightmare about accidentally asking her friend to jump off a cliff- only for the girl to do it with a grin on her face. After all, sometimes the worst nightmares are the ones you can almost see happening in real life.

That was why Misao _hadn't_ flat out refused to tell her anything. She had instead more or less begged Ayano not to ask her, or ask anyone, what had happened that day. And Ayano had agreed, because she hated having that much control over someone and didn't want to abuse it just to satisfy curiosity.

Then Misao had asked her to make one simple promise, or rather she had pleaded. To promise to ignore anything people said about her. To just walk away and pay no attention no matter what they said.

It felt like the most difficult promise she had ever had to make, but also – weirdly – it also felt like one of the easiest. Yes, she had doubts. She had so many reasons to worry. She was more or less certain that Misao was in the wrong, that she had done something terrible. Unforgivable. Possibly even evil. If she hadn't, there'd be no reason to want to hide what had happened.

But it was still easy because the promise was for Misao. It didn't matter that she had probably done something awful, she was still the same girl. In a way, she had decided to give her word the moment she had heard it asked – the rest was just inner-debating to sort out later.

Of course, Ayano had made sure that in return for the promise her friend would agree to sit down in the bathroom and let her use their family's First Aid kit. Again, Ayano knew she didn't need to ask, she could have just barked the order and would have gotten the same response, but that wasn't how she wanted her friendship to be.

And so they had spent the next hour with Misao sitting near-naked on her toilet seat as Ayano looked over her and found every single bruise and scratch that she had somehow gained in such a short amount of time – everything from the oversized bump on the head to the grazes on her shins and forearms from apparently being thrown onto some pavement. The house had been filled with shrieks and squeals of different volumes as Ayano had applied every stinging cream she had at her disposal. Everything from antiseptic to coagulants to keep the various cuts and scrapes at bay – though the latter was only really necessary on the stubborn split-lip that insisted on bleeding anew continuously.

Of course, after that Misao had looked up at her with puppy dog eyes and asked her between sniffles if they could take a bath together. And of course, she had smiled and said yes.

She smiled to herself again now at the memory, sure she probably looked silly just beaming to herself in the classroom with no one else around.

"Minegishi. Are you waiting for Kusakabe?" Kagami asked suddenly, and Ayano realised she hadn't even heard her friend arrive. She was surprised Misao's last name wasn't said particularly venomously actually, but perhaps that was being saved for later.

"Oh, um. I don't think she's coming." That was probably smart of her really. There was too much risk in letting Kagami see her, though it made Ayano feel a little bit lonely. Maybe she planned to come later on? They'd have to meet up again eventually – before school Misao had borrowed her mobile phone for something and had promised to give it back by the end of the day. She usually wouldn't break her promises to her unless it was literally impossible to do, so Ayano was pretty certain she'd be seeing something of her best friend

"Well, do you want to come and eat lunch with me?" Kagami offered. "I don't really want you to be alone or anything." Ayano was surprised for a few seconds. She wasn't sure if Kagami was doing it to prevent her loneliness or whether she just wanted to up the chances of running into Misao, but she didn't really mind. Honestly, it was probably a little of both, but she was just glad to get to spend time with Kagami while she could. And seeing Tsukasa again would be nice...

"Thank you Hiiragi-san, I'd love to."

* * *

I feel kinda bad about this chapter. It took me eons to release it, and it disnt insanely exciting. Its just a normal chapter. Hell, half the time I spent on it was spent trying to change it to something a little more interesting, but it failed because it really had to be what it was in the end.

Ah well, ill try to get the third one out WAY quicker. Though with how long this one took thatd be almost impossible to fail. So until next time, where there will be stuff like fluff! And kissing! And stuff!

Oh, for anyone who reads Negima! Ive got a good KotaroXNatsumi fiction on at the moment, since theres not nearly enough fics of that when its a canon pairing. I write that when i get writers block for this.

Also, I posted the story idea up on my profile but im putting it here too. How would people react to a Lucky Star with the girls set in a kind of High Fantasy world? Yknow, elves, magic, sorcerors, dungeons with the possibility of dragons, etc. Obviously id finish this LS fiction first, but its just something to think about. (PM me if your interested in hearing more or have some fun ideas youd like me to consider :D )

EDIT: Corrected a few sentences that didnt make any sense. I must have missed them in the rush to get out. If you see more please tell me, i dont like it when i miss stuff.


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